I started mystery shopping last November and have worked for several companies. I am curious who do you enjoy shopping for? Which companies pay the best and the quickest? (Suburban area of Houston)

Servimer and ACL and Informa are all at the top of my list.

trendsource pays the quickest, but not the best.

Everyone will have their own favorites based upon the availability of shops in their area and schedulers. My personal favorites at the moment are New Image Marketing and ath Power. I have a love-hate relationship with TrendSource (and I keep going back so it must be more love than hate?).

You just described me and EPMS.

@myst4au wrote:

I have a love-hate relationship with TrendSource (and I keep going back so it must be more love than hate?).

They're controversial here but I like working with Market Force, they have a handful of clients I like to shop, their reports are generally very easy to fill out and the self-reschedule option is nice when needed. Plus they reimburse bridge tolls, which opens up the Bronx/Westchester/southwest Connecticut as shop areas for me (I'm on western Long Island). Most of the other companies I work with don't reimburse, so if I want to venture off LI for them I have to bundle it with a MF shop.

BARE has some good schedulers, and if you wait them out the fees aren't bad.

Ipsos pays fast. I tend to find more shops that are interesting to me on the Sassie side than on Shopmetrics.

I always liked working for Intellishop, but sadly their lineup of appealing shops in my area has plummeted since Covid. They now only offer one that I will still do. Oh how I do miss their bartender compliance shop for the black and yellow sports restaurant.

I have fun checking in on the Field Agent app every day but only sporadically work for them because the pay is awful. If you keep a sharp eye out, though, once in a while you'll find a shop down the street that's so easy that it's worth it even with the low pay. (Buy a can of beer, take a picture of it, write 3 sentences about it, get the tiny fee plus reimbursement lol.)

I just received emails yesterday for bar integrity shops at the sports bar, but they are with a different company.

@KokoBWare wrote:

They're controversial here but I like working with Market Force, they have a handful of clients I like to shop, their reports are generally very easy to fill out and the self-reschedule option is nice when needed. Plus they reimburse bridge tolls, which opens up the Bronx/Westchester/southwest Connecticut as shop areas for me (I'm on western Long Island). Most of the other companies I work with don't reimburse, so if I want to venture off LI for them I have to bundle it with a MF shop.

BARE has some good schedulers, and if you wait them out the fees aren't bad.

Ipsos pays fast. I tend to find more shops that are interesting to me on the Sassie side than on Shopmetrics.

I always liked working for Intellishop, but sadly their lineup of appealing shops in my area has plummeted since Covid. They now only offer one that I will still do. Oh how I do miss their bartender compliance shop for the black and yellow sports restaurant.

I have fun checking in on the Field Agent app every day but only sporadically work for them because the pay is awful. If you keep a sharp eye out, though, once in a while you'll find a shop down the street that's so easy that it's worth it even with the low pay. (Buy a can of beer, take a picture of it, write 3 sentences about it, get the tiny fee plus reimbursement lol.)

CEE, by far. They don't have a lot of shops, but I get good fees, and the owner personally replies to emails and assists if you have a problem with a shop. The scheduler that schedules for my area is really super, too. Most of their shops are bank shops, but they seemed to have lost one bank client with the pandemic, so that's reduced the number of shops in my area.

I really like SPG, too; their fees are really good. But they don't have a lot of shops in my area. Same with ISC, and I really liked them, too. Same with SQG.

I have good luck with Intelli-Shop, too, and they have plenty of shops around here. But fees are too low most of the time. The oil-change shops are great, though, since I have a preferred make.

I will second SPG as they have good fees and are easy to work with. They only have a handful of shops throughout the year for me as well.
Bare is hit and miss. The schedulers are normaly good but it is hit and miss on getting bonuses to make their shops worth it. I don't recall any of their shops being worth it at base rate.
Although I may be in the minority I like IPSOS as the jobs are mostly easy and quick and the pay is one of if not the fastest in the industry.
SeeLevelHX is one of my favorites as once you learn how to play the game and what will get bonused and what won't the shops are fair in pay and time for what you can get when bonused and they pay like clockwork when payment is due.
Last note is it is ever changing and you may love a company one year and hate them the next or vice versa.

Okay, ACL = A Closer Look
SQG = Sales Quality Group (I think)
But what is CEE,SPG, and ISC?????

Thanks!
And to the above poster, since the name of the business that's being "compliance shopped" isn't mentioned, you MAY state the MSC.

Once I got used to the A Closer Look forms, they became my favorite. I also like Sinclair for their grocery store shops.

Intouch Insight

CEE is Customer Experience Experts I think
SPG is Service Performance Group
ISC is International Service Check

mjt9598: What cease said. I didn't name the client so if you can provide the MSC I'd be much obliged.

@Candy Kane wrote:

Once I got used to the A Closer Look forms, they became my favorite. I also like Sinclair for their grocery store shops.

I used to do Sinclair's fast-casual Mexican chain, the fee was low ($5) and the reimburse didn't quite cover expenses, so even though I was only clearing about $3 total I would do it if geographically clustered with other shops, because the report is easy beyond easy, I can do it in literally 5 minutes. But since Covid this chain has jacked their prices through the roof to where I'm losing money to do that shop. so no more.

They don't offer grocery near me.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/05/2021 02:36AM by KokoBWare.

coyle
not for the fees, but for the reimbursements.
looking forward to a $250 dinner this week and a $50 takeaway order tomorrow. i think the fees were like $5-10.

Sorry, cease, for not spelling them out, as they're not as well-known as many of the others. CEE is Customer Experience Experts and used to be Draude Marketing. Their headquarters is in my area, and I think they mostly have regional shops, although I have done some out-of-the-area ones for them.

I've done two or three shops for ACL, but they, too, don't have a lot near me. I had a real problem with them once on a shop because their instructions were very ambiguous, and nobody responded to my calls and emails on the day of the shop asking what I should do because an event was cancelled. Turns out they wanted me to do something the guidelines didn't ask for, and I went 'round and 'round with them. Finally got partial pay, but it was NOT a good experience. So they're not in my top tier of favorites! LOL.

The vast majority of my shopping these days is for Market Force. Their bonused fees are much higher than what I can get for more time consuming shops by other MSCs. I've also been very happy shopping for JM Ridgway recently. Their bonuses are excellent, the communication is good, the surveys are reasonable, and when they run a "pay in 3 day" shop I am indeed paid in three days. New Image's fees are pretty low but the suveys are so easy I'm happy to do them if I'm near one of their locations and again the pay is very fast and reliable.

@HonnyBrown - I keep getting emails from them but I would only considered the bonused ones. Are the apartment shops complicated (1,000,001 questions/long)? How long does it take for them to pay?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2021 03:50AM by sheshops00.

@KokoBWare wrote:

Market Force... they reimburse bridge tolls

I remember it used to be very simple to input toll expenses for MarketForce and no receipt was needed (up to a certain limit). That changed a few years ago. How/where are tolls entered now on their platform?

Tolls have to be entered into a separate expense page. There's a link on top of your completed shops list history. They only reimburse for expenses that have a receipt attached now. It will show as "accepted" immediately after entering it if you attach a receipt and it is not above a certain amount...I don't know that amount, but when I entered one over $8, it took several days for approval.

Thank you! Unfortunately, EZPass in my state has been lax in getting tolls posted so it likely would not be within five days that the transaction would post. And with COVID, all of the cash/attendant booths are (or will soon be) removed.

Bare had good things by me pre Covid. I like working with them. Nothing in my area right now.
Intellishop has a good one by me that I do on occasion. It gets approved fast and they pay on time.
Service with Style has some shops by me I do monthly. They pay on time and are easy to do.
ACL has shops by me on occasion that I'll pick up. They are fair and I don't mind their shop forms.
I'm going to make sure I'm signed up with other companies that others have mentioned.

@sheshops00 wrote:

I started mystery shopping last November and have worked for several companies. I am curious who do you enjoy shopping for? Which companies pay the best and the quickest? (Suburban area of Houston)

Customer Impact (which happens to be based in College Station). I've been doing more merchandising than mystery shops through them lately (actually, my last mystery shop was from 2019 now that I look).

Intellishop is also worth looking into especially if you like fast food.

Ipsos (formerly GfK) pays fast (or at least used to, as GfK) if you like their assignments.

A lot of shops I used to do haven't come back yet post-pandemic, so it's tricky to answer some questions like this.